Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)
Star Wars: Battlefront II is a 2005 first- and third-person shooter video game based on the Star Wars film franchise. Developed by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts it is a sequel to 2004's Star Wars: Battlefront and the second game in the Battlefront ''series. The game was released in PAL regions on October 31, 2005, on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Microsoft Windows, and Xbox platforms, and in North America on November 1 of the same year. It was later updated to be backwards compatible for the Xbox 360. It was also released on the PlayStation Store on October 20, 2009, for download on the PSP. The PSP version was developed by Savage Entertainment. The game features new vehicles, characters, game mechanics, maps, and missions compared to the original ''Battlefront. Unlike its predecessor, Battlefront II features a more narrative-based campaign, retelling portions of the Star Wars story from the point of view of a veteran Imperial stormtrooper, reminiscing about his tour of duty in service of both the Galactic Republic and as part of the Galactic Empire. Gameplay additions over Battlefront include the use of Jedi, additional game modes such as hero assault, and objective-based space battles. Battlefront II was well received, with the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions scoring in the mid 80s at aggregators GameRankings and Metacritic. The PC version scored slightly lower at both sites, scoring a 76.60% at GameRankings and 78 at Metacritic. The PSP version was the worst received, scoring 70.93% at GameRankings and 69 at Metacritic. Reviewers generally praised the narrative-based story; however, some felt that the upgrades from the original were not enough to merit the price. Like the original game, it was a commercial success. GameSpy Technology scheduled a shut-down across all titles using the service for May 31, 2014, which included Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC, PS2, and Xbox.1 Electronic Arts announced it would extend support for Battlefront II until June 30, 2014.2 The extended support ended on July 25, 2014, taking all GameSpy online video games across all platforms offline. The Windows version was added to a list of supported games on GameRanger on May 31, 2014, which allows for continued online play Gameplay Battlefront II is fundamentally similar to its predecessor, albeit with the addition of new gameplay mechanics. The general objective in most missions is to eliminate the enemy faction. Like its predecessor Star Wars Battlefront, the game is split into two eras: the Clone Wars, with battles taking place between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and the Galactic Civil War, where battles between the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire take place. Players have the ability to choose between six classes during gameplay. Four class types are common to all factions; infantry, heavy weapon, sniper and engineer.4 In addition to the four standard classes, each faction has two unique classes which unlock by scoring a predetermined number of points. For the Rebellion faction, the Bothan Spy and the Wookiee; for the Empire, The Officer and The Dark Trooper; for the Republic, the Commander and the Jet Trooper; and for the CIS, the Magnaguard and the Droideka.5 Battlefront II also features heroes - a special class that allows the player to control iconic characters from the Star Wars universe. Heroes serve as a bonus to players, and are unlocked by meeting certain criteria, such as earning a certain number of points. Differences between Battlefront II and its predecessor include the ability to sprint and the ability to roll forwards.6 In addition to utilizing heroes in conquest matches, the game also featured a hero assault mode in which heroes were pitted against villains in a team deathmatch format. Category:Video Games Category:2005 Video Games Category:Xbox games Category:Xbox 360 games Category:Star Wars video games Category:Xbox One Backwards Compatible Category:Xbox One X Enhanced Category:Xbox 360 Backwards Compatible Category:Windows games